The 2015 Grand Fondue at Orchid Cellar Meadery and Winery is coming and this year we have great things planned. As usual, we’ll have a really cheap entry fee. A no-profit venture with all proceeds going to a help support a local rider who is battling cancer.

Our Grand Fondue is about eating and riding. Ride a huge ride, come back to a scenic winery in Middletown for some awesome food and wash it all back with some Merlot or Mead at Orchid Cellar.

Nothing will be timed; there will be no winners. It’s going to be a challenging but relaxed ride, an easy pace to ease the legs through the terrain. We’ll take in some of the finest and smallest roads in Frederick County.

Charity – All proceeds will be going to help out a local cyclist, Angela Rand Lakatos, who is battling Cancer. Angela is a longtime local mountain biker, who has helped many of her close friends in need. She has done pro bono legal work for local race promoters, and trail work in the watershed (perhaps you have ridden Angie’s trail?). In March 2015 Angela found a lump. The biopsy came back positive for 2 types of stage 3 cancer, and she has been told it is aggressive. Chemotherapy began on April 10, 2015 with multiple surgeries to come once recovery begins. To follow Angie’s story, visit Angie’s fight on Facebook. In a short amount of time the family is witnessing the cost add up, and Angela only has so many days of leave available to her and that will be used up fast. So we want to do something to help!

Important Info:

100-Mile Route. 9,000 feet of climbing! Please know your limits, this will be hard but doable. In the past, this has taken some riders close to 10 hours to finish. Ride starts from Orchid Cellar at 7 am, so get there early to sign a waver and get situated. Lights are a good idea in case a flat or wrong turn keeps you out a little later. This will be a tough ride with a lot of climbing and some gravel roads mixed in. 25mm or 28mm tires are recommended. Extra tubes are a really good idea too! I would leave the carbon wheels at home.

50-Mile Route. 8:30 a.m. Start time. A little tamer but still challenging and takes you to some of our favorite local roads. Around 3,700 total feet of climbing and a little gravel too! Again, larger tires and extra tubes recommended.

25-Mile Route – The shorter ride will leave from the Orchid Cellar at 2pm. About 2k of climbing and of course some gravel!

Who: Bike Doctor Frederick and Orchid Cellar are hosting this event. Because this is a winery, you need to bring an ID with you if you want to partake. This isn’t a 21+ event, and we have to card because of that. Outside booze is prohibited and illegal.

How Much: $30

For non-riders: free entry and wine tastings for a minimal charge, are available with Orchid Cellar staff on site.

What does my 30 bucks get me? Two glasses of either Merlot or Mead, a commemorative glass with something about the Fondue on it, and a super minimal sag wagon with some minimal support stations. There will be local music out there, as well. Food trucks will be dishing out some awesome food, so bring some cash and come hungry!!!

There will be a few sag wagons, but KNOW YOUR LIMITS. If 10,000 feet of climbing sounds like a lot, it is. This ride makes the Civil War century seem civil… The riding will be hard, even if the pace is not. There will be gravel and dirt roads. Challenges galore. Please sign up for the appropriate ride for your abilities. Remember, even the short ride will be rad! We’ll have a mechanic who is roving around, but he will be minimally equipped. The 50 miler and the 100 are both hard this year. Rough, too. Come prepared.

What to bring: A bike with low enough gears to get you through a big HILLY ride, water, lots of food, and appropriate clothing. We’ll be huffing up huge hills and coming down them pretty fast. It can get a little cold descending after a tough climb. We won’t have spare clothing, so figure out what works and bring it.

There will be very few places to stop for additional food. There will be only a few designated rest stops, and they will have minimal provisions: extra water, Gatorade, basic snacks. This is not a supported century ride. This is a big self-supported ride in the country. Please bring a blinkie light and use it, especially if it is overcast, starts to rain, or you just get caught out in the dark, we want you to be safe. Spare tubes (2 per person), a patch kit and a enough C02 or a hand pump to fix at least 2 flats. We will be on some dirt roads, so please bring a bike you will be comfortable riding on such surfaces. If it is a road bike, get some durable 25mm tires or 28′s if they fit. Ask in the shop if you are unclear on any of this.

Wine. Back roads. Food truck with tasty morsels. Epic vistas. The 2014 Grand Fondue at the Orchid Cellar is coming and this year we have great things planned. Better food. More drink options. All new routes. More music. This year we’ll have 3 routes. The 26 miler is the shortest, and takes in classic dirt roads in the Middletown Valley, winding past working farms, shaded streams and rolling country vistas. The 50 miler is a challenging but approachable ride, with 5k of climbing, mostly at the start of the ride. It features some tough ascents and some wicked fast descents, including one of the hardest climbs in the county. The 100 miler is a great ride this year, with the option of bailing at 50 miles. 10k of climbing, great dirt roads, epic climbs and brake pad burning descents.

As usual we’ll have a really cheap entry fee. A no-profit venture. Races are pricey. 100-150 bucks for a day of riding. What about a big ride that costs riders 30 bucks, gets them some wine and food and a commemorative wine glass? That’s what we’re talking about! Email us to sign up. Bikedrfrederick(at)gmail(dot)com Put grand fondue in the subject, and let us know which length ride you’d like to do. We’ll send you a paypal button so you can pay online, or stop in the stop, and we can do credit or cash.

Our Grand Fondue is about eating and riding. Ride a huge ride, come back to a scenic winery in Middletown for some awesome food and wash it all back with some Merlot and Mead and chocolate fondue. Andre and Dan the Younger, who used to work at our shop, craft and market Orchid Cellar wines and meads. The Orchid Cellar will be hosting the after party, where riders can grab some food, sample some wine, and enjoy a beautiful valley overlook. We’ll also have a few fire pits going!

Nothing will be timed, there will be no winners. It’s going to be a challenging but relaxed ride, an easy pace to ease the legs through the terrain. We’ll take in some of the finest and smallest roads in Frederick County. Even the 26 mile ride is going to be challenging, even with 1/4 of the miles and 1/4 of the elevation. Don’t worry though, even the shortest ride has some fantastic scenery and barely travelled roads.

New for this year:

-The 50 mile folks and the 100 mile folks will share the first 50 miles. Usually, everyone sorta splits up, but hopefully this will keep more folks together for longer.

-Food Trucks. We’ll have a few great food trucks out there whipping out some amazing food. Your Fondue ticket will have a voucher in it for meals from said trucks. Of course this means you won’t have to bring a sack of beans or a dram of hot sauce.

-More music. The first year we had none. Last year we had one band. This year we’ll have a band and our man AJ spinning some tunes and maybe another band too. Post ride party time!

-Local vendors showing off cool stuff. We’re lining up some rad local businesses that you might not know about to come show off some stuff.

-Orchid Cellar is whipping up some new wines and mead variations as part of your ticket, and will have affordable refill pours if ya wanna sample some other stuff as well.

-Better cue sheets, that are vetted by a few people

Important Info:

100 mile and 50 mile rides start from the Orchid Cellar at 7am, so get there earlier to sign a waver and give us money, if you didn’t in advance. At the latest, get there at 6.30. You think you won’t need headlight, but the last riders last time got in well after dark.

The shorter rides will leave from the Orchid Cellar at 2pm. Again, get there earlier. There will be a mechanic on hand if you have minor issues with your bike. He won’t have cables, housing, chains, tires or cassettes. We are talking basic stuff: tighten this, loosen that. This is a cheap event, and we wanna keep it that way. If you have doubts as to whether your bike can handle the ride, get it into the shop at least a week prior to the event.

Who: The Bike Doctor Frederick and The Orchid Cellar are hosting this event. Because this is a winery, you need to bring an ID with you if you want to partake. This isn’t a 21+ event, and we have to card because of that.

How Much: The entry fee is really reasonable. The support on the ride therefor is minimal. We’ll go into what to bring in a minute here but first the cos. Still cheap. 30 bucks.

What does my 30 bucks get me? Two glasses of either Merlot or Mead, a commemorative glass with something about the Fondue on it, two food truck vouchers, and a super minimal sag wagon with some minimal support stations. There will be local music out there, as well. There will be a few sag wagons, but KNOW YOUR LIMITS. If 10,000 feet of climbing sounds like a lot, it is. This ride makes the Civil War century seem civil… The riding will be hard, even if the pace is not. There will be gravel and dirt roads. Challenges galore. Please sign up for the appropriate ride for your abilities. Remember, even the short ride will be rad! We’ll have a mechanic who is roving around, but he will be minimally equipped. The 50 miler and the 100 are both hard this year. Rough, too. Come prepared.

What to bring: This part is going to sound preachy, but it contains the important nuggets, so bear with me. A bike with low enough gears to get you through a big HILLY ride. Water. Lots of food, including something to get you through if you start to bonk. That means Gu or some other sort of energy Gel. Appropriate clothing. We’ll be huffing up huge hills and coming down them pretty fast. Sweat+steep roads=wind chill. We won’t have spare clothing, so figure out what works and bring it. There will be very few places to stop for additional food. There will be only a few designated rest stops, and they will have minimal provisions: extra water, Gatorade, basic snacks. This is not a supported century ride. This is a big self supported ride in the country with like minded folks. Please bring a blinkie light, if it is overcast, starts to rain, or you just get caught out in the dark, we want you to be safe. Spare tubes (2 per person), a patch kit and a enough C02 or a hand pump to fix at least 2 flats. We will be on some dirt roads, so please bring a bike you will be comfortable riding on such surfaces. If it is a road bike, get some durable 25mm tires or 28′s if they fit. Ask in the shop if you are unclear on any of this.

How to sign up: Stop by the shop or email us. Soon we’ll have a paypal button, but currently we’re accepting Credit cards or cash. We can do credit over the phone, too. No checks, please. If you want to email us, we’ll have you split your CC into a few emails. It’ll be easy, and we can walk you through it. bikedrfrederick@gmail.com Put Grand Fondue in the subject.

We’re doing our first ever clothing only sale. Shoes, socks, riding kit, hats, all on sale this weekend. We wanted to make sure you got a chance to try out some of the great new stuff we picked up this spring, like the Giro New Road clothing, matching Castelli kits, Terry women’s clothing and a whole slew of new shoes. We have more clothes than anyone in the county, and arguably a cooler selection than anyone in a 3 county area. For instance, where else are you gunna nab some camo wool socks, Italian shoes, merino wool polo shirts and neon yellow bibs?

Here’s the details on the sale. Buy more, get a bigger savings. Easy. Spend between $50 and $100, get 10% off. 100-150: get 15% off. 150-200: 20% off, 200+ 25% off. That’s easy. That’s really just a pair of shorts and some new shoes. All 2014 stuff, this isn’t old stock! 3 days only. The sale ends of Sunday at 5. If you miss it, you missed it.

Every Sunday, we go for a rambling, slowish, dirt strewn ride through the forgotten roads of Frederick. The rides are casual in pace (12-15 mph on flats) and usually have loads of climbing, because flat roads are boring. You need to bring: good lights, bright enough to see with, a spare tube, fattish road tires. Meet at the shop at 5, wheels down at 5.30. Back around 9, usually. 20-30 miles for the spring, going to 30-50 miles by summer’s end. Questions can be addressed to bikedrfrederick (at) gmail.com Sign up on the appropriate day on our event’s page. We’ll try to post up a map if we have time, for that week’s route.

Meet at the 7th Street Starbucks, Frederick Maryland. Wheels down at 5:30. 12-16 mph pace to the climbs and re-grouping at the top. Expect 25 miles and harder/slightly longer as we get more daylight. Bring your extra legs!

April 25th and every Friday as trail conditions allow: Friday Mountain Rides at the Shed.

Meet on an alternating schedule (see events page for exact info) between the maintenance shed on Mountaindale Road and the Hamburg Parking Lot. Ride speed adjusted to whoever shows up. Some fitness and technical ability is expected. Ride until dusk.

April 26th: Frederick Watershed Cleanup

If you love and use the Frederick Watershed, then come out and give back to it. All sorts of trash gets thrown around up there, because some people think that nature is a great place for an old TV or a tire. We’re going to do our part to help clean it up. This whole thing is part of the Annual Potomac Watershed Cleanup. Our ‘shed drains right into the Monocacy and that goes right into the Potomac, which goes into the bay. It’s a pretty good idea to keep all that clean, ’cause we drink that water, play in it, fish in it, etc. Anyway, we’re gettin’ together with our friends at the Common Market, The Frederick Bicycle Coalition, The Bike Escape to make this happen. There’s gunna be a raffle for some prizes, including gift cards to the aforementioned businesses. Meet up is at the foot of the mountain on mtn dale road, where there is an old county maintenance shed. Map link at our facebook events page! www.facebook.com/bikedrfrederick

May 9th Salsa Demo Day

The Salsa demo truck is rolling into town. Join us in the Frederick Watershed for an afternoon of trying out cool bikes, hitting some rad trails and tearing it up down some dirt roads. All ya gotta bring is your normal riding gear w. a helmet, and your shoes and pedals. We’ll fit ya up, adjust suspension and tire pressure, and get ya rollin’. We’re going to set up the truck at the same place we did last time, the intersection of Fishing Creek Rd and the dirt side of Gambrill Park Rd. Map link at our events page. Fun starts at 3pm and goes till dark.

We’ll have all of the Salsa bikes out there except the Colossal and the Vaya. The truck is only so big! Let us know you are coming and share this with your friends!

Emmitsburg is working on a cool new mountain bike trail system. More places to ride, especially within a quick drive, are always welcome. They need our help to make rock the casbah. Trail work is a ton of fun, even if it is work. You get to shape a trail that you can later ride on. That’s… very rad. They’re providing a light breakfast of coffee, OJ, bagels and fruit before work begins. Afterward, BBQ. You can never have too much BBQ.
Meet at Rainbow Lake on Hampton Valley Road. It’s a pretty location, if you have never been out there.
Dress ready to work.

The bikes below are part of the ridiculous clearance sale happening Saturday, the 25th. We have lots of great bikes in a bunch of sizes. Road, Mountain, Touring, Cyclocross, whatevering… Below you’ll see a pic of the bike, and it’s original price and the sale price is too low for us to legally publish, so call us for the sale price. Only good on that one day! These are bottom of the friggin barrel prices. However, combine the purchase of bike with shoes, get 15% off the shoe price! Get pedals too, and take 20% off the price of the shoes and pedals. Get a helmet too? 25% off shoe, helmet and pedal combos with a new bike purchase. Getting shorts too? Get 30% off shoe, helmet, pedal, shorts combos. Pretty sweet deal, that. We know it’s a pain to call and ask for pricing, but it’s the only way we can swing this low pricing. Give us a shout or (if you hate the phone like I do) email us. 301.620.8868 or bikedrfrederick (at) gmail (dot) com

Felt B16 W 54cm. Was $2199, Call for sale pricing!

Trek Madone 5.2 in a 54 and a 59. Hot bike! Full Ultegra. Was $3399, Call for sale pricing

Who: You and 100 other riders. Kids who can easily pedal 4 miles can come along, if they have lights and a helmet.Where: Baker Park Bell Tower, next to the Armory.When: 7:30 sharp, or earlier by a bit. It’s cold, no one likes hanging around for stragglersWhat is it?: A X-mas lights viewing ride around Frederick City. A few miles, casual pace, mostly flat. We ride as a big group, no one gets spit off the back.What do I bring: A bike, a rear blinky light or enough battery powered xmas lights that you dont need a blinkie. Gotta decorate your bike. BRING A LOCK, if you are coming to the post ride hang out at Firestones.The Competition: We’ll be giving out good prizes for the top 3 decorated bikes. Employees can’t compete, so don’t worry about that. Any December holiday counts, so do whatever you want on that front. The bigger, the better. Last year we had someone toting an actual tree around, a snoopy mobile, bikes with ornaments, bikes made up like giant sparkling reindeer… photos here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.526507777367752.126464.359366150748583&type=3Post Ride Party thing (21+): Firestones on Market Street.

Still have questions: Email us at bikedrfrederick (at) gmail (dot) com

Here’s the deal: We ride around in the bitter cold and look at good and bad X-Mas lights on houses in various parts of the city. It’s a short ride, probably ok for kids over say… 8, that are used to pedaling. It’s a super casual pace, we ride as a big X-mas theme’d Amoeba, and eventually end up at Firestones for the afterwhatever. You have to decorate your bike. The more extravagantly the better. Any December based Holiday theme applies, not just X-mas. We will post helpful hints about this as the time draws near. The top 3 decorated bikes (popular vote) win some cool bike theme’d prizes. Much better than last year, where we gave out some peach colored glasses and some half eaten cheetos.